By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson Well, you’re not going to get a year end review from me. I’ve been thinking all week — talking to you in my mind, actually — trying to come up with something uplifting to say. Running along in my thoughts, as a kind of bass line to the rest of it, […]

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson Whether you see the Christmas story as Gospel truth or a sweet legend, I wish you a peaceful holiday. However you interpret the story of Jesus, I hope you feel the love in it and I hope you make that love yours to share with the people around you and with […]

Guest post by Mary Gilbert [Mary Gilbert is the representative of Quaker Earthcare Witness at the United Nations. This role led her to observe the recent climate negotiations (COP16) in Cancun, Mexico. Her report, written for Befriending Creation, the Quaker organization’s newsletter, is reproduced her with her permission. The links here are added to provide […]

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson Are you up for a delicious bite of satire? Try this, from Slate. Field of Greens The dreaded broccoli uprising and other freaky GOP nightmares. by Dahlia Lithwick When the socialist revolution comes, the first shot will not come from filthy peasants bearing flaming torches or angry, poorly dressed workers demanding […]

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson Most people are smart enough to resist the attempt of the radical right, and the Republican politicians who are courting them, to replace their brain cells with string cheese by clamoring for Barack Obama to come up with a valid birth certificate. But even some of these folks look askance at […]

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson I’ve spent the better part of this week researching the WikiLeaks affair, particularly as it relates to the publication of messages that put the State Department in an embarrassing light. My instinct told me this is important to the future of our country – more important than any of the issues […]

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson The title of this post has a ring to it, don’t you think? Wouldn’t you be proud to live in a country where all children are healthy and no child goes hungry? Well, that’s the goal of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act that President Obama signed into law on Monday. […]

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson Remember the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act fiasco? It was all but enacted when someone discovered a Constitutional glitch: it should have been passed first by the House and sent over to the Senate, because it included a money-raising provision. Well, the House passed the Senate version of the bill on […]

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is filibustering the Obama tax cut “compromise.” No idea how long this will last, but at 2 p.m. ET Friday it’s on C-SPAN This is a real live filibuster, not a Repug-style threat. Bernie’s saying stuff, not just posturing. Watch for a few minutes. It may lift […]

By Miryam Ehrlich Williamson House Republicans today announced their picks for committee chairs for the 112th Congress, which begins in January. Frank D. Lucas (OK-3) got the nod to chair the Agriculture Committee. In the 111th Congress, Lucas was the ranking member on the committee, the title given the senior member of the minority party. […]